Dubai opens Expo 2020 to a world still reeling from pandemic

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai is opening Expo 2020 in an extravagant ceremony that was delayed a year by the coronavirus pandemic. The event will last six months and has over 190 countries taking part. Thursday night’s opening ceremony saw performances by hundreds of singers, dancers and acrobats. The site’s central Al Wasl Dome, made of steel and weighing the equivalent of 25 blue whales, became a 360-degree screen showing images of the desert and nature as sound rolled across the gathered audience. The Expo will be one of the world’s first global events, following an Olympics this summer that divided host nation Japan and took place without spectators.